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Dessert

Chocolate Souffle

A baked chocolate souffle made with chocolate, milk, sugar, eggs, flour, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute without browning.

  3. Slowly add the milk, stirring until smooth and slightly thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and mix into the beaten yolks and sugar until well combined.

  5. Add the melted chocolate and stir for a few minutes, then let cool.

  6. Rub a little butter over the top to prevent a crust from forming.

  7. When ready to serve, stir the mixture to smooth it out.

Assemble and steam

  1. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites until combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered tin, filling it two-thirds full.

  3. Line the tin with a strip of greased paper that rises above the sides.

  4. Place the tin in a deep saucepan with enough hot water to cover half the tin.

  5. Cover the saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes without lifting the lid.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately on a very hot dish, covering with a hot tin if needed.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they trap air and give the souffle its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and set as the mixture cooks, adding richness and body.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk base so it can hold the whipped egg whites.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and adds richness and body to the base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base with the flour, giving a smooth, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped egg whites gently. Whipped whites hold air bubbles that make the souffle rise. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the mixture must be folded lightly and evenly to keep the souffle light.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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